Wow

Where did February go?

Indianapolis, Indiana

I survived the conference despite frigid temperatures and almost no sleep for a whole week.

The bed was comfy even if it felt empty.

I tried to drink a lot of water.

Came home and we had this huge pile of laundry to deal with. But I am so happy to be home.

Take Back Your Lunchtime

At my job, we’re busy. I mean really, really busy. Usually 90% of the time. People come in early, work late, and sometimes on the weekends. After a few weeks/months of this, it gets to you. Now I don’t work on the weekends unless absolutely necessary. Yes, I scan the Blackberry on Saturday mornings and Sunday evenings but that’s about it. But my lunches have disappeared.

When I was buying a sandwich or a bit of soup, it was a great way to get lunch in. But when you fix your lunch at work (I cook blackbean burgers or burritos in the toaster oven), bringing a plate of food outside isn’t really appealing. So I started eating my lunch at my desk. Slowly my lunch disappeared into me shoving food into my mouth while trying to type with one hand.

I wasn’t anymore productive doing this. But the resentment seethed under the surface while I thought of a plan. Then it came to me. I could continue to fix my lunch at my desk and work. But I could schedule time after this to go for a walk or read. By actually putting the time down on my Outlook calendar, it allowed me to keep this time for me.

Today, I will go run. Sorry coworkers. I will be out of the office from 1-2pm. See you soon!

Four Days Off

I took tomorrow (Friday) and Monday off from work. I have some stuff I need to take care of: check engine light on the car, taxes, etc. Plus my work doesn’t believe in sick days. They just give you paid time off. So I’m gonna sleep in, make myself breakfast, take care of some stuff, bake and enjoy myself for four days. Four days off…I think I’m gonna make some donuts. Maybe a pie. Hmmmmmm pie.

Laid Off- Now What?

If you’re like many Americans who have recently been laid off, you might be thinking now what? I know I was. Here is my advice for those who suddenly find themselves with a lot more time on their hands.

Day one (the day of the lay-off):Tell everyone of your personal contacts that you are now exploring your options or open to new adventures however you want to word it. Give them no more than three different jobs you are looking for: event planning, social media, and marketing assistant. Send them copies of your resume. Next apply for unemployment.

Now go and lay down for awhile. Getting laid off is nerve wracking, stressful, and painful. Change into your comfort clothes, grab your blanky and lay down for awhile. You cannot make good decisions when you are in this state. I suggest taking a couple of hours to rest.

Now after you’ve had some time to rest and clear your head, call your mom or the person who always believes you are special and wonderful. (If you don’t have one of those, let me know. I have several and could loan you one.)Let them tell you how great you are. Don’t interrupt-it’s rude. Just sit and listen.

Fix yourself a nice meal or take one of your friends up on their offer for a meal out. Enjoy yourself. Eat some butter, have a second roll, or add sour cream to that potato. Your problem is still going to be there tomorrow. When I got laid off, my mom told me to wait until the next day to do anything. Her rational was that I wasn’t going to solve anything that night. She was right, of course.

So eat your icecream or drink your beer. Remember that it really is going to be okay. Really. Bad things happen to everyone and it’s how you deal with those situations that is really the true measure of your character.

I dedicate this blog post to my mom who is one of the most amazing people ever. No matter what happens to her or the people around her, she always has a plan. I think President Obama should give her a call. Seriously. I also need to thank all of the people in my life who have helped me through my ordeal. You know who you are. Thank you!

Tomorrow’s blog post: Day Two It’s Time To Get Busy So Get Out of Bed!!

Aleta 2.0

Yesterday I got laid off. I don’t really know what to say about it. I consider myself lucky because I was fortunate enough to work with some really talented people. But my company was forced to lay off four people yesterday. As much as hurt me, I could tell that my boss and CEO were feeling it too. Yeah, I admit that I wanted to punish both of them for their decision. The ugly awful part of me wanted to completely break down shrieking how I had busted my hump for the company. But I couldn’t do it. I wanted to grab both of their hands and tell them it was going to be okay. Instead I think I just sat there smiling some creepy smile, nodding a lot. Truth be told, my heart was pounding so hard that I thought I was going to faint.

So after having a mini-meltdown which resulted in the sobbing phone call to my mother, I am okay. (Thanks Mom for the advice!)Although this isn’t how I wanted my employment to go down, I am grateful to my company for all of the cuts they made prior to laying any staff off. In order for the company to continue on, they had to make some hard decisions. However it does look like I will be lending a hand with the company’s upcoming tradeshow preparations. It’s going to be a challenge for Andy and me. But we’ve gone through much worse than this.

And let me tell you how awesome Andy is in times like this. He totally rocks. He’s supportive, funny, and an all around great guy. So now we’re looking at all the opportunities in front of us and exploring options. One of those options is moving away from Portland.

So now I am looking toward the future and not looking back. What’s happend has happened. This next chapter of my life is going to be called Aleta 2.0. It’ll be an upgrade!

Here’s what I did last night:

My first blog post for work…

I got a chance to write my first blog post for work. Check it out! I can see some things I would change on this post as I am a semi-perfectionist. My next post will be much better. For some reason, I really stressed out about this post. I thought about exactly what I was going to say for two days and then it took me a few hours to write it! Granted I wrote a bit, did some other work tasks, came back to the post wrote some more, did some other works duties, came back and wrote, etc. And there was a lot of deleting. Really. A lot of deleting.

After the post was published, I sent out an email to almost everyone I know with the hyperlink embedded in the email. I’m going to check the stats and see how many people visited our site. I’ll report back with a rough estimate of the number of page views or visitors. It’s pretty exciting seeing your writing on a company website. Yay for me!

(Update: Aisle7 has since removed my post. I’m not sure why.)

Des Moines, IA

My work sent me to Des Moines, IA to demo our software application to end use customers. When I travel for work, it’s usually to train our business clients on how to use our software so this was a unique experience.

For many years, I worked demoing and/or sampling products in stores, festivals, pubs, skateparks, radio events, etc. Not to toot my own horn but I’m pretty good at it. Sampling and demoing looks easy. I mean how hard is it to either show someone how to use something or give them a free product? Well, not everyone can do it. It take a lot of patience, quick wit, the ability to laugh at yourself often, and a desire to interact with the public. And last but not least: passion for what you are doing.

Personally I love to talk to people. I know, all of you are so surprised because I’m so shy. (For those of you who don’t know me, I’m not shy. Really.)I like to find out what they are doing, who they are, what they like, etc.

For this demo, I offered some fruit or nuts or even Kettle Chips newest baked chips. While you are grabbing the toothpick, I ask if you’ve had an opportunity to use the Fresh Ideas Center (see the kiosk beside me?) I then proceed to show you how to use it to find a recipe or choose a great bottle of wine.

Why do I do it? Well, besides the fact that its my job, I do it because I believe in our product. How many times have you gone to the grocery store and not known what you were going to make for dinner? Well, these handy (and might I say conveniently located) kiosks have hundreds of recipes on them.

Have you ever gotten a prescription at your grocery store and wondered if your St. Johns Wort interacted with the new medicine? Well, these kiosks have side effects and interaction information on them. Have you ever purchased produce that was on sale but had no idea what to do with it? Once again, these kiosks have information on buying, storing, and preparing all sorts of produce. You can even access recipes that use that produce.

So if you see one of these kiosks in the store, use it. Print out a recipe. Look up a health condition. Find out about some new produce you’ve been wanting to try.